Daily Reflection with Aneel Aranha

Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered by the thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops. “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.   When I was young, I often heard my grandfather say that “the fear of the Lord was the beginning of wisdom”. He was

Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your ancestors killed. So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors; for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that this generation may be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” When he went outside, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile toward him and to cross-examine him about many things, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.   Jesus continues to lash out at the scribes and Pharisees in today’s rea

“ But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love to have the seat of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it.” One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too.” And he said, “Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them.   There are times when I really wish I lived in first century Palestine so I could have seen and been with Jesus, but there are other times when I am glad I was not. This is one of those times. The way he rebuked the Pharisees was terrible, and I wouldn’t have liked to have been around to see that. He called them unmarked graves, and in case you are

While he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him; so he went in and took his place at the table. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not first wash before dinner. Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you. In India, where I am living at the moment, people are very particular about hygiene, especially when it comes to food. It is a standard practice to wash your hands before a meal. The reason for this is because many Indians don’t use cutlery but eat with their fingers. This practice is not unique to India; it is common in many other parts of the world as well. Therefore, if you are invited to somebody’s house for a meal where eating with the fingers is the practice, one of the things you are expected to do is w

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here!   Jesus talks about two Old Testament characters in today’s passage: Jonah and the Queen of Sheba. Jonah was a prophet who was called by God to preach repentance to Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. The Assyrians were Israel’s archenemy, and they were very destructive people. Jonah hated them, so when God

  Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with

  While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” I am sure that there were a lot of people who admired the wonderful manner in which Jesus preached and the way in which he worked miracles. I suppose it would have been natural for many, especially women, to think of how proud his mother must be of him. One of them speaks out: “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed,” she says. And Jesus responds: “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."  It may seem at first reading that Jesus was deflecting the compliment paid to his mother to make a point of his own — that anyone who obeyed the word of God was greater than his mother — but in truth he was inflating the compliment. He was effectively saying that even greater than Mary’s motherly love for him